Population may exceed 105.7 M due to contraceptive shortage

By Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star), January 3, 2017

MANILA, Philippines – Lack of available contraceptives would easily make the Philippine population balloon to over 106 million this year, the Commission on Population (PopCom) declared yesterday.

In an interview with reporters, PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III said the country’s population might exceed its projected rise by a million this year if contraceptive supply in the market continues to dwindle due to the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) issued in July 2015.

Last week, PopCom projected the Filipino population to hit 105.7 million by December 2017, based on Philippine Statistics Authorities’ data showing that women of reproductive age in the country continue to increase, coupled with higher-than-national-average fertility rates in most regions of the country.

“It could be more than 106.7 million if, let’s say, the SC decision becomes final,” Perez said. “We are slowly running out of modern family planning methods.”

Congress passed the Reproductive Health law in 2012, and the executive department approved its implementing rules and regulations in March 2013. But some temporary restraining orders from the courts have constrained the law’s implementation.

For one, in July 2015, the Supreme Court stopped the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from renewing the licenses of all contraceptive products, as petitioned by the Alliance for Family Foundation Philippines Inc.

With the 2015 TRO, the FDA had to first re-certify that the products are safe and not abortifacient.

The high court has also prohibited the Department of Health (DOH) from including some P250 million worth of contraceptive implants in its family planning program. These products are set to expire in DOH warehouses by late 2017.

The DOH and other reproductive health advocates have filed a motion for reconsideration with SC. But in August 2016, the SC ordered the FDA instead to re-certify the products again.

According to Perez, the licenses of 15 of 48 contraceptive brands in the Philippines had expired since the TRO was issued. He cited a contraceptive pill for breastfeeding mothers that is no longer available in the market.

“This is the reason why we are hoping that the TRO will be lifted soon,” he stressed. “If it is going to last for the whole year, that would mean one million new pregnancies, so we will have not only 105.7 million new babies (this year).”

Perez said the TRO would also lead to 1,000 more maternal deaths annually.

PopCom’s projected population growth included over 27 million women aged15-49, the supposed beneficiaries of DOH’s RH services under the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law.

Perez said the continuing increase in population is due to the “relatively high fertility rates of Filipino women, which is three children on average.”

Eleven of the country’s 17 regions were noted to have higher fertility rates than the national average.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Bicol and Western Visayas have the highest fertility rates at 4.2, 4.1 and 3.8, respectively, primarily due to cultural and religious beliefs on family planning.

Perez said PopCom has been trying to educate Muslim religious leaders on reproductive health. These leaders, he said, had come up with a fatwa setting only two to three children as the ideal family size for a quality life.

In Bicol and Western Visayas, PopCom is working with civil society groups, he added.